Legal Services Committee

The Legal Services Committee is one of our regulatory and disciplinary committees, which together support the operation of the Professional Standards department. The department is responsible for helping members and firms to maintain high professional standards and holding them to those standards.

The Legal Services Committee (LSC) governs the arrangements for ICAEW’s regulation of the reserved legal services of probate and oaths administration. It undertakes ICAEW’s responsibilities as an approved regulator and licensing authority under the Legal Services Act 2007 and is overseen by the Legal Services Board (LSB) and ICAEW Board.

The committee carries out its responsibilities within its terms of reference, the regulatory objectives set out within the Legal Services Act 2007, and the ICAEW Legal Services Regulations

The Legal Services Regulations govern the authorisation, licensing and conduct of entities and individuals wishing to undertake probate work, estate administration, and the administration of oaths within the framework of the Act and compensation scheme to provide consumer protection.

Function of the committee

The Legal Services Committee has responsibility for the following activities:

ICAEW's functions as an approved regulator and licensing authority as set out more fully in the Legal Services Regulations, which include:

considering and determining applications for probate accreditation;
considering and determining applications for authorised individual, Head of Legal Practice, Head of Finance and Administration, non-authorised owner or probate affiliate status;
monitoring compliance with the Legal Services Regulations;
taking regulatory action as required to secure compliance with the Legal Services Regulations;
referring matters to ICAEW’s disciplinary committees as required; and
compiling and maintaining a register of licensed firms and supplying this information to the Legal Services Board as required;

ICAEW’s functions under the Legal Services Compensation Scheme Regulations in determining applications for grants;
the development of ICAEW policy in relation to legal services practitioners, in consultation with key stakeholders;
rule-setting and any amendments to the Legal Services Regulations and Legal Services Compensation Scheme Regulations in consultation with the LSB and other key stakeholders;
attendance, through its Chair or Deputy Chair, at meetings convened by the Legal Services Board where the Chair of the LSC is invited to attend; and
liaising freely with the LSB and other stakeholders on matters concerning legal services practitioners and responding to requests for information from the LSB.

In cases where the supervision of firms highlights an actual or possible breach of its regulatory arrangements, the Legal Services Committee will act to protect the public interest and the interests of consumers. This may be through a range of measures, from obtaining an informal undertaking from the firm or individual to put things right to the imposition of formal regulatory and disciplinary sanctions such as the imposition of conditions or restrictions, the suspension or withdrawal of accreditation, disqualification or a fine (the level of which will be guided by the sanctions guidance).

Budget and fee-setting

The LSC is responsible each year for reviewing the proposed budget for the forecasted costs of legal services regulatory work and determining whether any adjustments should be made to the licence fees charged to ICAEW’s accredited firms in order to ensure that sufficient resources are available to discharge all of ICAEW’s legal services regulatory responsibilities.

Membership of the committee

The committee is comprised of ten members, five of whom must be lay members. Up to half the members of the committee will be practitioners with technical expertise in the regulated areas. The chair is a lay member with a casting vote. (Lay members must not be lawyers or persons with legal training.)

Members are appointed for a term of three years which may be renewed once.

The committee may not include any person who is a member of the Conduct, Tribunals or Appeal Committees. Members of Council, ICAEW Board and the ICAEW Regulatory Board may not serve on the committee.

Operation of the committee

The Legal Services Committee normally meets four to six times a year and meetings are normally held virtually, with a quarter of meetings held in person. The quorum for the committee is five, the majority of whom must be lay members.

The committee is assisted by a committee administrator and a committee secretary who is a lawyer. The secretary supports the committee by providing both legal and procedural advice, when required.

The committee may also seek advice from any source that it considers appropriate to enable it to discharge its responsibilities.